The present invention relates to a ball screw for a motor vehicle brake, in particular for an electromechanically actuable motor vehicle brake, comprising a rotatable spindle, a nut that is axially movable relative to the spindle in accordance with the rotation thereof, and a rolling body arrangement that is disposed between, and displaceable relative to, the spindle and the nut.
From the background art various types of motor vehicle brakes are known. There are for example conventional motor vehicle brakes, in which brake linings are displaced by means of a hydraulic system so that they act upon a brake disk co-rotating with a wheel and in dependence upon the applied hydraulic pressure achieve a more or less strong braking effect. Besides such hydraulically actuable motor vehicle brakes there are in the background art purely electromechanically actuable motor vehicle brakes, in which the brake linings are displaceable by means of an electromechanical drive, in particular with simultaneous use of an electric motor. Such brakes have the advantage that for their control a complex hydraulic system is not required, it being possible instead to use the vehicle electronic system to control the brake system.
The background art according to DE 101 26 556, and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,571,921B2, both of which are incorporated by reference herein in entirety, discloses such an electromechanically actuable vehicle brake, in which a brake lining that is disposed in a conventional manner in a floating caliper arrangement may be displaced by means of a ball-ramp mechanism in order thereby to achieve a braking effect.
The background art according to DE 195 11 287 further discloses an electromechanically actuable disk brake of the floating caliper type, in which the brake lining that is displaceable relative to the housing is displaceable by means of a spindle-nut arrangement. Disposed between the spindle and the nut are threaded rollers, which act as rolling bodies and together with the spindle and the nut form a roller screw.
As further background art, reference is to be made to the document DE 198 35 550 A1.